Weekly Update 3 Apr 2020

Cryptocurrencies, bonds and gold stocks were in the black, major stock indexes declined, and national currencies and commodities were mixed. The wildest ride was in crude oil, which hit a new all-time low of 386 mg per barrel on Monday, then began rising. On Thursday and Friday it shot higher, finishing the week at 546 mg, up 32.1%. The largest losses were in Japanese stocks, which dropped 8.1%, and palladium, down 4.8%.

The weakest national currency was the Euro, closing down 2.2%. The Chinese Yuan was strongest, rising 0.8%. US Dollar cash added 0.3%, but was outperformed by its bonds, as the short term SHY gained 0.4% and the long term TLT rose 0.9%.

Bitcoin fell early in the week, hitting a low of 113.9 grams on Sunday, then rallied through the rest of the week to close at 129.8 grams, up 4.3%. Ethereum followed a similar path, ending up 6.4%. Not all cryptos rose, however. For example, DASH (not in table) closed last week at 1.33 grams; like BTC and ETH, hit its low of 1.17 grams on Sunday and climbed through the week, but didn't manage to recover all of its early losses and ended at 1.30 grams, down 2.2%.

Gold stocks were the only rising equities as the HUI index gained 3.5%. As mentioned above, the Japanese Nikkei suffered the largest fall, dropping 8.1%. The European STOXX50 came in second, declining 4.5%. US stocks "outperformed" as the S&P 500 fell just 1.8%.

Commodities were mostly lower; the only exceptions were crude oil – which spiked 32.1% – and silver, which managed a 0.8% gain. The worst performers were palladium, which fell 4.8%, and platinum which declined 3.5%.

Priced in Gold Weekly Summary

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